I believe Timehin. For a young girl with so much brilliance to speak out, Andre Blaze and Pretty Mike have the burden of proof to disprove her claims. Powerful institutions that stand with perpetrators of sexual assault have no place in media, either as the BBC or Ebonylife. For others indifferent, sexual assault is never about lust, it is about power. To abuse power in whatever form is a recantation of an individual’s humanity. I hope we all stand with this young woman as she tells her truth.

I don’t know these two youngmen, but the onus is on them to disprove her claims.

@Xala, we should all be supporting abused persons but not at the high price of discarding natural justice anchored on a presumption of innocence. Justice is a tricky thing and unfortunately a few factually guilty will slip through its hand, but once we discard with the basic tenets designed to protect the potentially innocent (including arbitrarily shifting the burden of proof), then the greater society will be at risk. The reason that society has set such a high bar of proof is that there can never be adequate compensation or redress for the conviction of a factually innocent person. The best thing that we can do for victims is to ensure that real justice is done and be seen to be done.

So brilliant and young people do not lie? Can everyone start encouraging women and men who are true victims to speak up immediately? It’s baffling how some people’s lives get ruined based on 30 year old allegations judged by the court of public opinion.

Accusers should have valid proof, go to court and let judgement take its course. Enough with social media sentiments and defamation for which compensation is never given. Assault of any kind is wrong n when proven justice should prevail.

The law determines every person innocent until proven guilty. Therefore the burden of proof is on the accuser, to prove the accused guilty.

I imagine you wish to see assaulters pay for their crimes (we all do abeg, enough is enough), but as @Ovadge rightly stated, it is very important that we refrain from shifting this burden of proof, even if this is merely the court of public opinion.

That being said, I hope justice prevails and I am glad this subject is being discussed more openly.

Ok now, this kind of statement will derail objective thinking. Your perception about someone is not valid without proof. #TimesUp indeed, but do not pass judgments based on mere assumptions from watching him on TV.

Completely wrong. The burden of proof is on the accuser and never on the accused. You said you believe Timehin because she is brilliant… I’m not sure where truth and intelligence intersect but whatever works for you.

The burden of proof will be on her but as we already know in matters of sexual misconduct and assault; accusation alone is suffice to damage reputations.

No one will ever google the accused name without this coming up. For that alone he is already on the losing side.

I respect opposing views, however, my opinion is not on the “brilliance” of Timehin. As she stated, she asked BBC to edit out his sessions, to make such requests, she must have stated the date and the place. It is never the accuser’s burden to prove sexual assault allegations. Once an allegation has been made public, it behooves the accused to provide proof of innocence or sue for perjury. Andre’s response showed neither, a reference to the public perception of you is not sufficient. In the Weinstein case, allegations were made, same as Timehin’s, the authorities conducted their investigation, and it was on his lawyers to prove his innocence. ‘

This is my position, our society too often discredits sexual assault victims’ stories without due diligence. If you know anyone who has survived one, they rarely would lie, except there is money to be made or advantage to be had. For Timehin, one can ascribe neither motivations, the Nigerian penal code does not award monetary settlements in sexual assault cases, and she has sufficient acclaim not to need to ride on the coattails of Andre Blaize. We should take a step back and provide support to the victim who has had the courage to speak out, as well as require the accused to respond with evidence to contradict this allegation.

Am here for the comments. Ya all spoke from an informed position. I learnt a lot. I think this is the most intelligent perspective on an issue that I have come across on a Nigerian public platform in recent timez. Odas na insult dem go dey rain on themselves. Thanks

I understand the pain women feel when they are sexually assaulted/harrassed hence the support you push when you hear a story like this one because you’ve either been in those shoes or you don’t want to be in those shoes.

I have had a woman tell me she will accuse me of rape. In her words ‘All the blogs will carry it. The story will come out when your name is googled and your children’s children will read it. Your life will be ruined’. It happened so fast I couldn’t even record or anything and this happened because we had a small argument and I refused to give her transport fare back to her house which was less than NGN1,000 away. Where she snapped was when I said whoever is with her is just there for sex because she isn’t smart or beautiful (which I regret saying now). She eventually posted it on Instagram about how i tried to rape her blah blah and beat her and even tagged the popular Instagram blogs but fortunately for me, no blog reported it.

How do you think someone like me will feel about this story? I’d see myself in it and defend the guy but that would still be wrong. Let her prove her story and let the law handle the rest instead of believing her straight as it comes.